I don’t know when I became totally obsessed with Jack Kerouac but it was sometime in my early 20’s. I remember taking a trip to San Francisco to go to City Lights book store as though it was a pilgrimage to a holy shrine. For a time, I traveled with his book in my backpack. Then I had some management book and I have since parted with both. Management books make me nuts, except for John Kotter’s Leading Change, that was a good one (and Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, ok I like some business-related books, but it is a tight list).

I’m going to take Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Farm Journalist: Writings from the Ozarks with me on the road for the next few trips.

It’s back to the open road tomorrow.

Taking 45 days off work travel was a semi-good idea, it got our teenager through high school summer classes despite running back and forth between work like a bee on fire to ensure pick up and drop off went smoothly. He worked his first job this year, too. That was worth ensuring he did it well. “Do I need to be on time every day, mom?” Yes, every day for the rest of your working life.

I’d like to cover my top 3 favorite airports in order / preference:

#1: Baltimore – rocking chairs, they know how to clear snow and keep flights on track; just eastern enough to be slightly punky/brash in a kinda hot, not a rude way#2: Atlanta – good food selection (peach and apple pies) + you can get a good jog in running between gates with your carry-on clutched to your chest like a football#3: tie for Sacramento, CA & Redmond, OR – both tiny and beautiful; Redmond OR is like a hunting lodge and Sacramento always leads to Napa Valley and V Sattui, whose wine ranks pretty high with me

When I started traveling about 3 years ago, I had to pop a Xanax every time I boarded the plane or turn into a little pile of shakes and squinched-closed eyes. It turns out that traveling on 100 flights per year can really wring out your fears and turn a person into a very practical traveler. I barely bat an eye anymore. Although, in March, taking off from my home town, we had a lightening strike in a snowstorm as we went up into the clouds that reminded me of Castaway and that scene when all hell breaks loose and Tom Hanks is walking around in his socks trying to hold onto the life raft. It was less dramatic than that, but I did yelp out loud. (YOL)

The crew gave everyone on board as many free drinks as they wanted after that, and most of the flight attendants I talked to said they hadn’t ever encountered a strike before and were just as shaken as us.

Going back on the road is something I dread yet when I am at work out there in the big world, I feel like I belong. That is something to savor once in a while, despite the hardships it imposes upon my life and family. It will all be over so soon. What is 15 years when you’re past 40 and surveying the back 9? That’s right, you’ve just witnessed my 1 and only golf analogy.

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The Minimum

Creating within the protective, mildly narcissistic/over-sharing shell; low-scale pressure, nothing to live up to except to frequently teleport into the open field of mind-space. I have turned off the comments section; if you're burning to talk with me, click the icon at the top of the page and send me an email.